In this time of resolutions and promises made, I want to ask you a different question.
How will you challenge yourself this year?
Answer that question and you can answer this next one:
What makes this challenge worthy of effort?
Is it the lure of the pay-off? Why would you do something if there is no pay-off? What would the point be?
If pay-off is what makes the challenge worth it, how do you measure it? Is it about dollars and cents? Is it the promotion, the accolades, the visibility? Any of these and more could be a measurable pay-off.
The thing is, we never know for certain that a pay-off will materialize. A worthy challenge doesn’t come with a guarantee. If it did, who would need support, a guide, a mentor or a coach? We would all take on challenges left and right without hesitation and fear.
Instead, we take on challenges with doubt in our ability to succeed and worry about what will happen when we don’t. With the risk of failure and an uncertain outcome, we let the most worthy of challenges pass on by and with it, opportunity.
Of course, we miss the opportunity of pay-off since we didn’t even step up to the plate to take a swing. But even more importantly, we missed the process. The process of taking on a worthy challenge is also the practice that we need to succeed in that challenge. And now we don’t even have that.
What if we were able to look beyond the pay-off and imagine the possibilities that could come from the process. With a decision to take on a challenge, we open ourselves to opportunities we could never imagine. Opportunities that would never materialize without the determination that the process might be as, or more, valuable than the pay-off.
Are you focused on the pay-off? Does the fear of no pay-off keep you on the sidelines? Evaluate your challenges and get the benefits of pay-off and process in our unique group coaching program, Launch Your Leadership.